1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to containers that can be used for moving and/or storage. Particular embodiments of the invention provide a moving container that can be assembled for moving then collapsed for storage repeatedly, while providing sufficient reinforcement and support for carrying moved loads.
2. Description of Related Art
Collapsible containers used for moving are known in the art. A standard moving container is formed from a sheet of cardboard comprising panels with foldable flaps that form the top and bottom portions of the container. The customary means of securing the top and bottom portions of the container has been through the application of strips of adhesive tape along the edges of the flaps to reinforce the areas between the flaps and between the flaps and panels. However, a prevailing limitation with this arrangement is that, once the move is complete and the contents of the container have been removed, the tape is difficult to remove from the cardboard panels and flaps without severe damage to the cardboard or the tape. The fact that the assembly of the box uses permanent adhesive tape that cannot be re-used severely limits the ability to convert an assembled box back to a collapsed form for storage until the next move.
Various attempts have been made to provide collapsible containers with resealable means for securing the flaps. For example, a number of attempts have been made to use hook and loop-type fasteners (VELCRO being the most commonly known) as a resealable mechanism for closing the flaps of a container. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,034,909; 4,556,167; 4,333,602; 6,045,037; and 7,014,057; and Published International Patent Application WO 2000/076859 A1, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. These attempted solutions typical employ some configuration of complementary strips of VELCRO that are fixed to the flaps and panels with an adhesive. However, these configurations, while lacking the disadvantage of adhesive tape, also tend to provide poor reinforcement of the top and bottom portions and therefore cannot withstand the heavy loads that are often required when moving. Further, these configurations also have the disadvantage in that when collapsed containers are stacked next to each other during storage, it is possible for a complementary VELCRO strip from one box to catch a complementary strip of an adjacent box, causing adjacent containers to become stuck. Other containers have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,887,782; 7,481,355; and 6,427,907; as well as in U.S. Published Patent Application Nos. 2010/0187836; 2012/0024941; and 2010/0163563; in European Publication No. EP0810156 B1, and International Patent Application Publication Nos. WO 2006/002524 A1; WO 2003/045796 A1; WO 1997/036790 A1; and WO 1996/007578 A1, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
The art has still not provided a satisfactory solution to this problem, and the standard box available to the consumer for moving remains cardboard sheets with folding lines to prepare a box assembled with non-reusable adhesive tape. Thus, there is a need in the art for a reusable, collapsible storable container with securing means that can be reused over and over again for moving.